Villa D'este Has Niche In Northern Italian Fare

TABLETALK - Robert Tolf

The new owners of this corner property anchoring one end of a strip mall have put in a menu loyal to the name, no matter how they spell it.

Northern Italian is the name of the game at this handsomely outfitted retreat whose previous incarnations used the word Auberge (for inn) in their moniker and specialized in French fare.

It's hard to believe that we need one more Italian restaurant instead of something provincial from France, but as long as the new Villa D'Este keeps producing its Crustini di Polenta, Bocancinno, veal Valdostana au Champagne and duck Panzerotti it should be able to fill some niches.

The Crustini di Polenta, one of seven appetizers, $6.95-$7.95, consists of polenta cakes sauteed in olive oil and crowned with wild mushrooms and gently herbed sauce.

Bocancinno is one of the dozen entrees, priced from $14.95 for a Romano cheese-egg-battered chicken breast to $21.95 for filet mignon, and it consists of filet mignon tips, bits of chicken breast and chunks of Italian sausage in a red wine demi-glace served with three kinds of mushrooms and roasted potatoes.

Veal Valdostana au Champagne is a variation of saltimbocca with mascarpone and prosciutto layered between veal scallops sauteed in a champagne sauce bristling with wild mushrooms.

The duck Panzerotti is one of the quintet of pasta specialties, $13.95-$18.95, and is a mixture of duck meat with chestnuts and porcini sprinkled with herbs and wrapped in raviolis, with a port wine duck demi-glace.

They all sounded very tempting, but we settled on a pair of choices slightly more mundane. We began with the fried squid, which was removed from the run-of-the-mill calamari crowd by dusting with a spicier-than-most special flour. It was served with a tongue-tickling sauce based on a balsamic-tomato reduction. Excellent, but some calamari fritto fans would find it too spicy, too peppery.

One of our main courses was the angel-hair pasta. It originally attracted our attention because, uniquely these days, it used the right words in Italian, "Cappelli Di Angelo."

The thin-thin noodles were properly al dente, treated to what the menu declared would be a "very, very light cream sauce."Covering the top of the mound of pasta was a variety of pretty good shrimp that had been sauteed in a combination of sun-dried tomatoes and spinach dotted with pieces of portobello.

I finally settled on a special of the night, fresh Florida snapper Francaise.

It was average, but at least there was no excess of sauce or interfering flavors to detract from the delicacy of the fish.

What I really liked was the treatment of the plate mates. The potatoes were in the shape of pears, complete with bay leaf, and baby rutabagas were filled with a fine carrot mousse.

There were also excellent carrots and haricots vert alongside the snapper, and they too added mightily to the attractiveness of the plate.

We also liked the espresso and the very friendly service, starting with the smiling, solicitous hostess.

As we took our last sips of coffee we made plans to return earlier some night, between 5 and 6:30 on weeknights and 4 to 6 on Sundays, for Villa D'Este's Sunset Menu.

There's a grand total of 15 budget-stretchers, five of them costing $10.95, five $12.95 and five $2 more. The complete dinners include a jumbo shrimp cocktail plus soup or salad, focaccia, dessert and beverage, and feature everything from spinach ravioli and eggplant Parmesan to potato-crusted salmon, chicken Marsala and veal piccata.